Unfortunately Cercis are susceptible to various canker and verticullum wilt,
especially when stressed. It's possible that your pruning either spread the
canker through the infected blades or that portion of the tree was already
infected and would have died back anyway. Dirr writes: "redbud suffers
dramatically from excessive stress be it lack of water, excessive moisture,
mechanical injury, et al.; a weakened tree is more susceptible to canker
and VERTICILLIUM; Dr. G. Randy Johnson, formerly at the U.S. National
Arboretum, was breeding for canker resistant redbuds; he noted essentially
no resistance in C. CANADENSIS."

Dave

"Ryan Sullivan" wrote in message
...
Hi folks,
We have a young eastern redbud in our backyard which is having problems
ever
since I pruned some dead branches off of it. I am in zone 5/6, and just
pruned the tree about three weeks ago. Ever since, some of the leaves
have
dried up and died. The branches seem to be okay, though. Could it be
that
I just shocked the tree? Thanks in advance - here are some photos (click
on
the "Garden" section):


http://photos.yahoo.com/sullivan190

Ryan
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